LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, i 
fiS^TtA I 

&}m — Qmm¥ % - 

siieif ..<2c.i.7 1 4 
i?H 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Idyls OF Freedom 

AND OTHER POEMS 

{SECOND EDITION) 



AELLA GREENE, 



author of 
'John Peters," "Gathered from Life," Etc. 



PUBLISHED IN 1894. 







Copyright. 


1894. 




BY 




AELLA 


GREENE. 



-HE BRYANT PRINTING COMPANY, 
FLORENCE, MASS. 



CONTENTS 



I. 

THE GREAT SACRIFICE 

AMERICA 

IN OTHER LANDS 

TRUTH MAKES FREE 

II. 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
VISION AND PROPHECY 
A WARNING TO COLUMBIA 
"O PATRIOTS PURE AND STRONG" 
A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS 
BY KOSCIUSKO'S DUST 
WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS 

III. 
THE EQUAL LOT 
AMONG THE TREES 
THE LESSON OF THE LILIES 
THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS 
DAYBREAK 
A HEAVEN 
"WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY" 



THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 

r\ STARS, what history 

It has been yours to see 
Enacted here since man, 
Crown of creation's plan. 
His wanderings began — 
Since to his pristine joy 
He added an alloy 
That forth a rover sent 
Him, fired with discontent. 
Say since, with Eden lost, 
The fateful bounds he crossed. 
How dear his straying cost ! 
Still, while in wretched plight, 
He was not hopeless quite, 
Nor rayless was his night. 

Stars that have kindly shone 
On paths his feet have gone — 
Than downward, let us hope, 
Onward more, and up — 



THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 

Aid Still his wish and quest 
For truth, and peace and rest. 
Still from the blue above 
Shine where he wars to prove 
His patriotic love, 
And, dying, asks you tell 
The ages that he fell 
To foil the tyrant's hand 
And bless his native land. 
And tell, as tell ye must, 
O stars, for stars are just, 
From what great sacrifice 
All others do arise. 
Tell what, foreseen, inspired. 
And what accomplished, fired. 
The patriot heart to live 
For liberty and give 
His life to make men free. 
And aid, O stars, to see 
That highest liberty 
Gives equal weight of care, 
Gives unto each his share 
Of burdens all must bear; 



THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 

That liberty, if boon, 
Used w.rongly, cometh soon 
To license, that is not 
True liberty, but blot 
On the historic page, 
A hindrance to the age. 

This life, this sacrifice, 
O stars, troni which arise 
The heavenly blessings given 
And hope of more in heaven — 
This life of hope for man, 
Ye saw as it began. 
Ye saw its teeming day, 
O stars, and sunset ray, 
And deathly chill of night. 
And hint at last of light. 
Ye saw the glorious morn 
Of grace and peace adorn 
The mountain heights of time 
And shine to every clime, 
To make all life sublime ! 
A star 'twas guided them 



THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 

Who fared to Bethlehem ; 
And at cerulean poise ' 
It sentineled their joys, 
As o'er the Saviour born, 
Rejoicing till the morn, 
They mused on what should be 
His wondrous history. 
Stars gave the warning dream 
Of Herod's hellish scheme 
And guided, then, the flight 
To Egypt through the night. 
And o'er the child returned 
The stars in gladness burned. 

The stars rejoiced the boy 

And study gave and joy, 

As through the years he grew 

To all the ages knew — 

Till wondering sages gazed 

Adoring and amazed. 

Stars cheered the Christ who prayed 

In lonely mountain glade 

And sang their joy to see 



THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 

The helpful ministry 

Of Him of Galilee. 

And when his followers slept 

Ye stars in pity wept ; 

And, weeping, wondered ye 

At the sublimity 

Of sad Gethsemane. 

And when at Calvary 

The sun refused to shine 

Your stellar beams were sign 

That Christ the slain should rise, 

Completed sacrifice. 

Triumphant to the skies ! 

Ye stars that wondering saw 
His answer to the law 
Who for the sinful died 
And poured the precious tide 
Of his great life, to give 
The sinful chance to live, — 
Ye stars who heard the word 
Sublimest ever heard, 
That Jesus at His death 



lO THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 

Spoke with His dying breath, 
To say the work was done, 
The victory was won — 
From that sublimity, 
That matchless agony, 
All greatness doth proceed. 
Thence every noble deed, 
Thence all unselfishness, 
Thence every pulse to bless 
That helps the patriot die. 
Without the question why. 
For home and libertv. 



AMERICA. 

/^~\N days and deeds sublime 

That gem this western clime, 
O stars of Freedom, shine, 
And shed your beams benign 
Where Concord bridge was won, 
And rustic Lexington — 



AMERICA. II 

And Bunker Hill declared, 
And Bennington, how fared 
The foes of liberty 
Who warred against the free. 

Shine where the great and good 
With high solicitude, 
In meekness knelt to pray 
To Heaven to drive away 
The foreign foes and give 
The country chance to live. 
How humble and how great, 
How fit to found a state. 
Was he who knelt that day. 
At Valley Forge, to pray ! 
And may his land remain 
The place of all good gain 
And Freedom's own domain. 
The home and resting place 
Of bravery and of grace, 
Of greatness and all worth — 
The paradise of earth ! 



12 AMERICA. 

Though truth the charm will break, 

Still best the truth to speak. 

Here, where 'twas general boast 

That this was Freedom's coast, 

Were human beings chained, 

While Selfishness explained 

That slavery was right. 

And those who saw the plight 

That Liberty was in. 

By league with such a sin. 

And dared rebuke the wrong. 

That still was growing strong 

While grew the nation weak 

To danger that 'twould break. 

Were stigmatized as fools 

Beyond discretion's rules. 

But, in these later days. 

The scoffers dare the praise 

That radicals were wise 

And fit to canonize 

For the sublimest skies ! 



How cursed this sin the land 
We came to understand 



AMERICA. 13 

When Donelson was need 
And Fredericksburg, and greed 
Of rough-hewn havoc made 
On Sherman's master raid 
Of horse aud infantry 
From inland to the sea ! 
And need to prove our liege 
To liberty was siege 
Of Vicksburg and the shock 
Of " Chickamauga's Rock," 
Grim Thomas of the build 
To name for Caesar's guild. 
So Grierson's reckless dash, 
Discreet in that 'twas rash ; 
And Farragut in the shrouds 
And Hooker in the clouds, 
And Ellsworth first to die, 
And gallant Lyon — why 
So early sent to heaven ! 
And why McPherson given, 
And thousands, thousands more ! 
How runneth up the score, 
Through scenes of din and gore, 



14 AMERICA. 

To Gettysburg, sublime 
Through all the years of time ! 



What tongue can tell, what pen, 

The fate of prisoned men 

Who, doomed to the ill 

Of Andersonville, 

Learned the tortures that spell 

A new name for hell ! 

And who can count their tears 

And warring hopes and fears, 

Who mourned their loved ones there, 

Or slain in conflict, where. 

Though glorious thus to fall 

For country and for all 

That's dear, and true, and high, 

'Twas fearful, still, to die ! 

And hard was it to know 

That with the slaughter, slow 

Moved the cause of right 

And darkened down the night 

Of doubt, with scarce a ray 



AMERICA. 15 

To hint of coming day. 
But rose a lustrous star 
When he led on the war 
Whose calm, courageous way 
Of hero in affray, 
Assured, at once, a morn, 
And was the sign to warn 
The foemen of defeat 
Their cause was sure to meet. 

Now once and three times three, 

At Appomattox tree, 

Give every one to all 

Who heeded Freedom's call 

And marched with Grant, to hew 

The hard-fought journey through 

The Wilderness, to see 

The dawn of victory. , . 

But who shall sing to tell 
Their deeds who fought and fell 
In all the hard campaigns. 



l6 AMERICA. 

Who equal epic strains 

For those whose crimson stains 

Full thrice a hundred plains, 

And reddens bloody years, 

Which make them high compeers 

Of all the brave that Time 

Hath brought to wreath and rhyme t 

Let gratitude be given 
In joyful song to Heaven ; 
Aye, shout and sing again, 
Good citizens, that when 
The nation was in dole 
A man of prophet soul 
Was sent to meet our need. 
A man inspired to read 
The meaning of the times 
The country for its crimes 
Was going through, — this man, 
With genius fit to plan 
And brave enough to act, 
Made thus his vision fact. 
Wielding the nation's might 



AMERICA, 

For mercy and the right, 
And breaking at a stroke, 
The bondman's galling yoke. 

Good stars, your radiance shed 

On paths where Lincoln led 

Through all those years of strife 

Up to the higher life 

Of Freedom and of peace 

And all the good increase 

That makes these states combined 

The envy of mankind ! 



17 



IN OTHER LANDS. 

r^OOD stars, what prophet ken 

Had Aztec Juarez, when 
For liberty he fought 
Against the foe who sought 
To bind with Spanish chain 
The Mexican in train 



l8 IN OTHER LANDS. 

Of papal Rome, to slave 
Subservient where the brave 
Descendants of the sun 
Their long career had run, 
Free as the airs that fanned 
Their lovely native land. 
Well ye rejoiced, to see 
Where foreign t\ ranny 
Had reigned, superior rise, 
To crown the high emprise 
Of Juarez with success 
And so mankind to bless, 
The fair republic bright 
With promise for the right 
Of patriots everywhere. 
For each hath right to share 
Each country of the free. 
Wherever dwelleth he. 

Still Juarez only did 
As high examples bid — 
Through thirty years of blood, 
When that brave Swede withstood 



IN OTHER LANDS. . I9 

The papal powers combined, 

Who sought on all mankind 

To place the Latin yoke — 

Gustaviis brave, who broke 

The bondage long and sore 

For northmen evermore. 

tie drove the power of Rome 

From church, and court, and home. 

Wherein the people sing, 

To crown Gustavus king ! 

And cadence of the song 

The southland doth prolong, 

Where well Emanuel strove 

And Garibaldi's love 

Was given for Italy, 

Mankind and liberty. 

And Magyars, whose Kossuth 
For country and for truth 
Was sacrifice, may raise 
To favoring Heaven their praise 
For his grand life, and twine 
The wreath and pray the Nine 



20 IN OTHER LANDS. 

To sing to full import 
That high in Austrian court 
The Magyars reign, whom erst 
The tyrant Austrians cursed ! 

How bright the stars that look 
On Scotland's famous brook 
And bid the a^zs learn 
That Bruce of Bannockburn 
Was Caledonia's pride ! 
Shine where her sons defied, 
At Flodden field, the foe 
That laid her banner low, 
Yet in defeat were strong 
To height of grandest song. 
Beam kind on every glen 
Known to his foot and ken, 
That kingliest of men, 
The Wallace of the Eld, 
Whom, then, ye stars beheld 
And sang him worthy praise 
Of all the future days. 



IN OTHER LANDS. 21 

^hine, stars, with beams benign 
On scene of deeds divine, 
Where Winkelried the brave, 
His Switzerland to save, 
Threw on the Austrian steel 
His mighty rage of zeal 
And struck in death the blow- 
To break the serried foe. 
His followers raining blows 
Where grand his courage rose, 
Thus turned the tide and day 
Against fhe cruel fray 
Of those who sought t' enslave 
The Switzer patriots brave. 
Whom God's own mountains gave 
That love of liberty 
That fits men to be free. 

And evermore shall ye, 
Bright stars of liberty, 
Rejoice to shine upon 
The field where Cromwell won, 
At Marston Moor, the day 



22 IN OTHER LANDS. 

And Stemmed the tyrant's sway, 
Till full at Naseby, then, 
Where royal Charles again 
Marshaled his hosts, the band 
Of patriots dared withstand 
The legions of the king. 
And all the years shall sing, 
To let the future know 
They routed him to show 
That foreign he and foe. 
Though native born, for he 
Loved not true liberty. 



TRUTH MAKES FREE. 

A S truth alone makes free, 

Who country loves must see 
The truth, and love the truth 
As ardently as youth 
The maiden from whose heart 



TRUTH MAKES FREE. 23 

Not even death can part. 

Truth founded love gives rate, 

The citizen's estate, 

A country and a place. 

Fraternity and race. 

Alien to truth, a man 

Nor country hath, nor clan, 

'1 hough cas'led well and crowned 

With choicest treasures found 

In late or olden times 

Through west or Orient climes. 

Aye, foreign he, and poor, 

And sick, thoui>:h mount and moor 

Afford their gold for wealth 

And myrrhs to bless his health. 

Not loving truth, then he 

Shall poor and homeless be, 

Though heraldry declare 

That ancient lineage rare 

Makes him the rightful heir 

To every land and throne. 

And thou2:h the people own 

The purple of his power, 



24 TRUTH MAKES FREE. 

Rejoicing in his dower 
And seeking bards to sing 
Him bishop, lord and king. 
But harps must not descend, 
For song hath upward trend ; 
So who but hymns for pay 
Sings but a meagre lay. 
And rhyme they ne'er so well, 
The bards who seek to tell 
An untruth in a song 
And sing success of wrong, — 
Some Croesus toast for wealth 
That came alone by stealth. 
And hymn the tyrant's power 
As given by heavenly dower — 
Will fail to reach the lays 
That live in honor's praise. 
Then, faltering down to phrase 
Whose labored lines confess 
They sing from selfishness. 
They'll rave to furious stress 
Of prayer to Power to bless, 
When Truth alone gives theme 



TRUTH MAKES FREE. 2$ 

Befitting poet's dream. 
This truth, ye stars above, 
No truth, there is no love. 
No truth, the gold shall rust, 
To teach the truth it must — 
No truth, then love is lust. 
And love of country, show 
Which all true patriots know- 
As subterfuge and sham 
That would to meanness damn. 
Beyond redeeming grace, 
A country and a race. 

Yet strange contrasts arise, 

Some royal mysteries — 

A king to virtue known. 

Yet who could make his throne 

By tricks that must belong 

The hellish arts among. 

The anchor of a wrong, 

That should have scourge of song, 

The very rage of rhyme, 

To blast to future time ! 



26 TRUTH MAKES FREE. 

The Charles whom Cromwell fought, 

True to his home, was naught 

But false to native land. 

Though promising, his hand 

Withheld the needed good 

He pledged to those who stood 

For liberty and right. 

For these did Cromwell fight ; 

For these he overthrew 

The Stuart king and slew 

The false one of the throne. 

And by the act was shown 

In England evermore — 

A truth the wide world o'er, 

And as the sunlight plain — 

The right of kings to reign, 

Original in heaven. 

Is to the governed given. 

By them to be transferred 

In their installing word 

To those their love shall say 

The kingly traits display. 



TRUTH MAKES FREE. 27 

Would Cromwell had remained, 
Preventing crime that stained 
Bright Albion's sovran name, 
By other Charles who came, 
The Charles who ever wrought 
Injustice and who thought 
Of self alone, and sought 
Delight in splendid sin 
And seemed possessed to win, 
By elegance of shame, 
An ever florid fame 
Unto his royal name ! 



IDYLS OF FREEDOM. 



II. 



ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 

T F ill the theme befits 

To sing of Austerlitz ; 
If vain to weep awhile 
By lone Helena's isle ; 
If cold, to some, such theme 
For patriotic dream. 
In that the Corsican 
Fought not for fellow-man, 
But strove alone for fame 
For his imperial name — 
O would some one as rod 
Of an avenging God, 
Arise, who, sent by wrath 
Of Heaven, should cleave a path 
Through Tyranny's domains 
To far Siberia's plains, 
And break the prison bars 
Of victims of the czars ! 

The cause demands a man 
Serener, grander than 



ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 

The dreaded Corsican ? 
May one with like strong hand 
And genius to command 
Arise — some leader born 
Under the star of morn, 
Some one whose shining worth 
Shall win the best of earth 
To highest hope and prayer 
For Heaven's especial care, 
And win good gallant men 
To join his flag, whose ken 
At once, from far, can see 
The day of victory — 
The men with might to win 
The boon their faith hath seen. 

O, chieftain of the skies 
And Freedom's cause, arise ! 
And panoplied for wars, 
Go guided by the stars 
That favoring shone 
Above Napoleon, 
In that sublime advance 



32 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 

From his admiring France 
That made the Russias quake 
And all the kingdoms shake. 
Stars they to aid to see 
The way to victory, 
Stars that would lustrous burn 
To light the grand return 
Of victors from the fray 
Where justice won the day. 

Not so the march when Ney 

Fared on the frozen way, 

To cheer his leader back 

Along the winter track 

With remnant of his host, 

To mourn the prize they lost, 

A city burned to ban 

The mighty Corsican. 

Him Russia dared not fight, 

But put to sorry plight 

By burning roof and bread 

That should have housed and fed 

The host, who froze or starved 



ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. ^^ 

By thousands ere they carved, 
With Bonaparte and Ney, 
To France their pilgrim way. 
But those engaged 
In warring waged 
To break the dungeon bars 
Of prisoned worth, ye stars 
Would good birds send to feed 
Unto their fullest need 
With manna of the Heaven 
That bread hath ever given 
To those who well have striven, 
Through hard or favored fight, 
In furtherance of right. 

If Moscow burned again 
'Twould light the prisoned men 
From durance hard to flee 
To hope and liberty, 
The men whose dungeon bars 
Are legacy of czars. 
Kings whose oppression is 
Acme of tyrannies ! 



34 



ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 

Those sending away 

In bondage to stay 

Whose glances have told, 

Or a breath over bold, 

That the fancies they hold 

Slight hindrances are 

To the wish of a czar ! 

Dooming banishment 

For the mildest intent 

Of the patriot heart ! 

O tyrant ! what art 

And what spirit malign 

Of the demons is thine ! 

How strange that czars should ban 

Those whom but easy plan 

Of right would lead to own 

Allegiance to the throne 

And give their life to prove 

Their loyalty of love 

And interest in the fame 

Of Alexander's name ! 

But heeding not the cries 

That move the pitying skies 



ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 35 

And make the nations weep, 
These Tartar tyrants keep 
Their hand of tyranny 
Against all liberty. 

O, when Sarmatia's brave 
With Kosciusko gave 
Most valorous blows to save 
Their country from the grave 
That fierce tyrannic might 
Had dug for Truth and Right, 
Say, Heaven of justice, say. 
Why did Thy vengeance stay 
From smiting down her foes ? 
O when to Thee arose 
Their patriotic cry. 
Why, Heaven of pity, why 
Should fail Thy mighty arm 
To shield their land from harm ? 

And fell Sarmatia, then, 
And her heroic men, 
Whose patriotic worth 
Had brightened all the earth, 



36 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 

Were graced with exiles' chains 
And scourged across the plains 
Afar to foreign strand. 
There they were given brand 
Befitting felon band ; 
Aye, there were given rate 
Meaner than murderer's fate, 
Whose hands the blood had spilt 
Of parricidal guilt ! 
Yet there, the scorn of slaves, 
Do these Sarmatian braves 
Display, despite the gloom 
Of their Siberian doom, 
The rare sweet quality 
Of fitness to be free ! 

Read not the story through, 
Read not of Finn and Jew, 
Whose wrongs alone were theme 
To fill the saddest dream. 
Read only that dark crime 
That chilled Sarmatia's clime, 
And blotted Poland out 



ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 37 

With Russian robber rout ! 
Thou angel, brave to stray 
So far from heaven away, 
To note for future time, 
The tyrant's monster crime, 
What flame can ever pay 
And burn the guilt away 
That clothes the Russian name 
With everlasting shame ? 

Stay, Angel of the Book 

Of Record, stay, and look ! 

For this is far from all 

Of Poland's direful thrall 

From Russia's might, whose whole 

Of tyrant dirt and dole 

Hath hue of Herod's crime, 

And smells of Nero's time ! 

Fair women sent to pine 

In dark and noisome mine ! 

Or sent with felon's chain 

To walk the weary plain 

Where mercy hath no rate, 



;^S ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 

Where hunger hath no sate 
But cup and crust of hate ! 
Or hath she darker fate, 
That is so worse than death 
It is not given breath ! 

Nor is this all ; for there, 

Condemned to felon's fare, 

Do patriot children know 

Maturity of woe ! 

O God ! where is the hell 

In which damned spirits dwell 

That is enough for this ! 

For blotting out the bliss 

From childhood's heart of joy 

That never knew alloy 

Of ill, nor thought to stray 

In sin's forbidden way ! 

Not the boldest would dare 
Nor would anyone care 
To learn every woe 
That the banished ones know. 



ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. ^gr 

Read not the story through ; 
One page alone will do ! 
One page alone of dread, 
One page with terror red, 
One page of hot tears shed, 
One page of that despair, 
Which fades the eye and hair, 
Saps e'en the power to cry. 
Gives a hot thirst to die, 
Kills the smile on the face. 
Blots the last look of grace. 
Blots the last mental trace. 
Stills the hand from device, 
Chills the blood into ice. 
And the nerves into bone. 
And the heart into stone ! 

O what chieftain would dare 
In the lists with despair, 
Though grandly he fare 
From tournaments where 
The giants, aflame 
With the passion for fame, 



40 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA, 

Contend in the fray 

Of chivalry's day ! 

Aye, came he away 

Unhewn and complete 

And longing to meet 

Far fiercer than those 

He found to oppose, 

What victor would dare 

To cope with despair ? 

How dead the heart, how dead, 

With hope forever fled ! 

And yet 'tis so quick 

That it trembles at tick 

Of the seconds of time 

And the pulsing of rhyme 

Of the song that keeps tune 

With the cadence of June ! 

Though despairing till dead, 

Yet it trembles with dread 

At the tenderest song 

That is wafted along 

Over clover and corn 

On the breath of the morn ! 



ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 4I 

And it quivers and quakes 
At a zephyr that shakes 
But as gently as jar 
Of the beams of a star 
That in rose-scented hours, 
Bright glancing in bowers, 
Responds to the flowers 
That smile, to invite 
The cheer of the light 
Of the beauty of heaven, 
In stellar beams given. 

Aye, there's never a heart 
That's alive to all art 
And is beating in chime 
With nature's sweet rhyme. 
But if conquered by fear 
Would shudder to hear 
Even music of waves 
Of the streamlet that laves 
The myrtle banks sweet 
Where the fairy ones meet. 
In elfin land grove. 



42 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 

To warble of love ! 
Aye, held by despair, 
No victim could bear 
Breath from elfin land, where 
But a breath of the air 
Ot the earth would displace 
The planets that trace 
Round the fairy land sun 
The courses they run. 
What then is the fate 
Of the victims of hate 
Of the despot who reigns 
O'er the Russian domains. 
And his victims doth cast 
To the pitiless blast 
Of the northland, or wills 
That in Caucasus hills 
They shall dig till they die. 
And dishonored shall lie 
In a far away grave 
Too mean for a slave ! 



O if angel could bear 
An exile's despair, 



ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 43 

What angel could tell 

Their tortures who dwell 

In a cell of the hell 

Of Saghalien, or give 

Their terrors who live 

In Kara's dark mines 

Where hope never shines 

To mellow the fate 

Invented by hate 

Of the barbarous czars? 

They challenge the stars 

Of the heavens to find 

The exiles who grind 

Hard toiling through years 

Of blood and of tears. 

When worn unto death 

They sigh their last breath 

Afar in that land 

Where doubt damns the strand 

Till o'er the wild sand 

Howl the fiends of despair 

And hiss through the air 

Such foes of all weal 



44 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 

As ecstasy feel 

To sparkle of hell. 

And after a spell 

They twinkle their eyes 

With gleam of the skies. 

Aye, they vary to ray 

Of heavenly day, 

To hint that a morn 

The waste shall adorn. 

Where no morning can come 

To the castaway's gloom ! 

Endured the tyrants laugh. 
And like the Chaldean quaff 
At high imperial feast 
To their full wishes drest, 
The nectar of their pride 
That long hath Heaven defied- 
Potations proudly poured 
To mock the names adored 
By Poland and by man 
For leading freedom's van ! 
Wine drunk in Tartar hate. 



ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 45 

From vessels desecrate 

That came from temples where, 

In their devotions rare, 

The loving and the free 

Their feasts of liberty 

In Polish custom held, 

Far back in days of Eld ! 

O Heaven ! whose lurid star 
Maddens to might and war ! 
When thou shalt undertake 
The Russian yoke to break, 
Say, Heaven of justice, say. 
What blood can ever pay 
The wrong to Poland done 
By those whose ravage won 
By Vistula's fair tide, 
That, often crimson-dyed 
From noblest patriot slain. 
Goes moaning to the main ! 

Ye thrice ten thousand dead, 
Whose blood the Cossacks shed 
In homes of Praga fair. 



46 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 

How eloquent your prayer — 

A plea to Heaven to aid 

A land in ruin laid. 

And emphasis of gore 

Hath this from thousands more 

Where Warsaw's reddened plains, 

That Freedom's ichor stains, 

And Cracow's crimsoned sod, 

Still wail their plaints to God ! 

Fair Wanda's mountain moans, 

Responsive to the groans, 

And Dnieper makes her cry, 

For Dniester to reply ; 

And from the Don to San, 

Rebuking Russian ban, 

Blood red the waters gleam 

Of each Sarmatian stream !-- 

Whichever way it track, 

To Baltic or the Black, 

Sad, sad each river flows, 

A requiem of woes. 

From Poland to the seas 

That chant her miseries ! 



VISION AND PROPHECY. 

/^N Ural hills it came, 

A tongue of prophet flame, 
A burning thither sent 
From out the firmament 
Of justice, love and truth, 
And everlasting youth. 
And thus the fervid voice : 
"O tyrant! have thy choice, 
To turn to righteousness 
And teach thy hands to bless — 
Repent the despot's crime. 
Worst tyranny of time, 
Or take the doom that falls 
Thereon — the mighty walls 
Of tyranny thrown down, 
The dimmed and wrested crown 
Of monarchs in defeat. 
With conscience to repeat 
To all the winds that fleet — 
* The tyrant's fate is meet !' " 



48 VISION AND PROPHECY. 

Thus, while the bright night heard, 
Swift flew the warning word 
And sought by westward star 
The palace of the czar. 
There, round the festive board, 
His nobles and their lord 
Glowed o'er their ruddy wine. 
In toast of new design 
To make the exiles weep 
And keep the world asleep 
Anent the wrongs that steep 
The tyrant Tartar's name 
In infamy and shame. 

But stay, why trem.bles he? 
What vision doth he see ? 
No ghost in festive hall ; 
No hand upon the wall. 
To make his pleasures paU. 
No fiend his eyes detect ; 
No peasant to suspect. 
Tried ministers attend ; 
Full foot and horse defend 



VISION AND PROPHECY. 49 

The throne and citadel 
Where czar and kindred dwell, 
And cordonned round the land 
Grim guarding legions stand ! 
Yet pales the czar with dread ! 
He deems assassins tread, 
With blade athirst and blast, 
To drink his blood and cast 
In atoms to the sky 
The halls of tyranny ! 

The voice from Ural hills 
Flamed forth hath gone in thrills 
Of swiftest breezes blown 
Along the northern zone, 
And many leagues afar 
In palace of the czar 
With trembling terror fills. 
To consternation chills 
The ruler of the land. 
And not invention planned 
To keep supreme at home 
His reign, if foes should come, — 



5© VISION AND PROPHECY. 

And not ambitious schemes 
That give him pleasant dreams 
Of other lands to gain, 
Of widening domain 
To great increase of dower, 
To boundlessness of power — 
Not one of these, nor all, 
Can break the chilling thrall, 
And drive the fiends away 
That on his spirit prey ! 

And evermore shall cling 

Those fiends, and tear and sting. 

And for new vigor drink 

The ichor, black as ink, 

'Of veins of tyranny 

That fed on liberty 

Through many, many years. 

Drank river floods of tears 

And jeered a thousand sneers 

At patriotic sighs 

Drawn by a czar's emprise ! 



VISION AND PROPHECY. 5 I 

After the burning spoke 

And round the echoes woke 

Responsive to the doom 

The flame announced to come, — 

Soft blazed the voice of truth, 

In tones of tender ruth 

Of love's sweet firmament, 

A message eastward sent 

By one appearing there 

From out the upper air. 

Who seemed to high emprise 

Commissioned by the skies. 

He wore that loveliness 

That doth high worth express 

In angel or in men 

Of angel mien and ken. 

Away on zephyrs borne, 
He came at tinge of morn 
To bleak Siberian strand, 
The northern demonland. 
There imps abound in air 
Who give their constant care 



52 VISION AND PROPHECY. 

That when the tyrants die 
Some sprite of ill shall fly 
To convoy them to hell, 
Reporting there how well 
They have performed the work 
The monarch of the murk 
Assigns, and, thus, how far 
They have obeyed the czar. 

From spirit of the sky 
The imps affrighted fly. 
And well escaped his might, 
They pause them in their flight 
And hiss in powerless ire 
Their breath of spiteful fire, 
That freezes on the air. 
And now they backward fare. 
To see if stranger sprite 
Shall think him to alight. 
And soon he turns to fly. 
That bright one of the sky, 
His plumage to begrime, 
Down through the jagged rime 



VISION AND PROPHECY. 53 

Of rock where guardsmen pace, 
To keep the exile race. 
And this the world of cheer 
The toilers, listening hear : 
"Good patience, still, ye braves 
Condemned to fate of slaves ! 
Against Oppression's throne, 
The Mighty makes His own 
The cause of those who, long 
In suffering, still are strong." 

Glad on his herald tongue 

The delvers hopeful hung. 

Yet scarce could angel's cheer 

Dispel an exile's fear. 

Forth then the voice of flame ; 

And soon a lovelier came — 

An angel with this word : 

" The message ye have heard 

Was told to me in heaven 

Whence all good gifts are given. 

So strange 'twas thought 'twould seem, 

So fanciful the dream. 



54 VISION AND PROPHECY. 

Another one was sent 
Attesting the intent 
Of powers above to bless 
With buoyance in duress 
And exodus from chains 
To Freedom's fair domains." 

The angel ceased and drew 

A stylus forth of hue 

Of the cerulean blue 

And ruby stone and white, 

And straight began to write 

Upon the prison mine 

With deep cut lustrous sign. 

No words the delving said, 

But breathless watched and read ; 

And forth the angel fled. 

Came then a third to say : 
" Toilers, ye have seen to-day 
Two of the seven prized most 
Of the selectest host 
Of all the armies bright 



VISION AND PROPHECY. 55 

Bannered in realms of light. 
Aflame with brightest star, 
That host ten thousand are, 
With place of honor given 
The thousand best of heaven, 
They who the most have blessed. 
As heaven's accounts attest, 
The sorrowing ones of earth. 
And honored most true worth. 
And those a hundred best 
Have placed before the rest. 
The hundred giving seven 
Most pleasing unto Heaven 
The highest, foremost place 
Of all the angel race. 

" And of this number, one 
Is Uriel of the sun. 
And Raphael gracious is 
And given to ministries. 
And most sublimities 
Hath missioned been to see, 
And most of misery. 



56 VISION AND PROPHECY. 

The first your boon 10 tell 
Was flaming Uriel, 
And Raphael who came 
To witness Uriel's flame 
And cheer with face benign 
The delvers in this mine. 

^' Led Israfil the throng 
In that first Christmas song 
That told the waiting earth 
Of a Redeemer's birth. 
And he of all the seven 
From out the weeping heaven 
Flown sad, in sympathy 
And wondering tears, to see 
The dread sublimity 
Of rugged Calvary, 
Stayed sentinels and kept 
The tomb where Jesus slept — 
The loveliest of the sky, 
Who gave himself to die. 
And their rejoicing eyes 
Beheld the Saviour rise 



VISION AND PROPHECY. 57 

And saw the earliest ray 
That tinged an Easter day. 

•* As, in God's economies, 

What once is true, forever is. 

And truth for angels holds for men, 

So, evermore, as when 

To watching spirits came 

The primal Easter flame. 

The best of honors given 

To man this side of heaven 

He wins who faithful waits 

With Right through cruel fates. 

Who bides with Worth through shame 

Shall have a lustrous fame ; 

With Christ through night of scorn, 

The joy of Easter morn ! 

And this, if fervors beat 

Of summer's fiercest heat. 

If 'tis November drear, 

Or if that time of year 

Whose wintry breath 

Is genuine as death ! 



58 VISION AND PROPHECY. 

" Not oft do mortals see 
In quick succession three 
Celestial ones, as ye 
This day have seen and heard 
In glad prophetic word. 
Yet men this truth may know, 
That for each want and woe 
Some angel waits above 
Commissioned by the Love 
Supreme, to fly and prove 
With blessings from the skies, 
That He is kind and wise 
And doth permit the stress. 
To give Him chance to bless 
And those who suffer, place 
To struggle into grace 
Of goodness and the dower 
Of perfectness of power. 
Whoso behaveth right, 
Whatever be his plight ; 
Whoever thinketh bright. 
Important, happy thing 
To say, or paint, or sing, 



VISION AND PROPHECY. 59 

Hath influence from the sky, 
And voice to ask him try 
To make both fine and strong 
The word, the tint, the song. 
Who heeds the first, gains more 
Of the celestial store 
That gives uplift from trite 
To new, from slough to height, 
From weakness unto might, 
From dryness, deadness, blight, 
To bud, and leaf, and bloom, 
That hint of Junes to come. 
O gracious boundlessness 
Of Heaven's power to bless ! 

** Keep sweet, O patriots, ye 

In this hard slavery, 

And some day ye shall see 

The tyrant bend the knee. 

To ask for leave to fly, 

By conscience scourged, to die 

Beneath this bitter sky — 

Here, where the clank of chains 



6o VISION AND PROPHECY. 

Doth fright Siberian plains 

To barrenness and dearth 

Unknown elsewhere on earth — 

Here, where such blight has blown 

Forever from the zone 

Of doubt, that ail the air 

Is dense with chill despair !" 

Seen or invisible, 

As seemeth to them well, 

The spirits come to tell 

The words of wrath or love 

That emanate above. 

And though alert to sounds 

And sights that vex their rounds, 

The guardsmen of the mines, 

Sworn to the czar's designs. 

Saw not those whose emprise 

Was threatening from the skies. 

Though came they bright as stars 

To speak the doom of czars. 

But read the guards in mine 

The deeply-written sign, 



VISION AND PROPHECY. 6l 

And sent a message far 

To citadel of czar. 

And he to frenzy flew, 

And worse each moment grew. 

Imperial mandate given, 
The royal guards had striven 
The writing to erase. 
But none could yet efface 
Indictment graven there 
By one of upper air. 
And livid in that mine 
Fierce glistened still each line : 
*' Unless the czars repent 
Before the firmament 
And right the wrong 
Their hate hath done so long. 
For Poland's cup of gall 
The Russian throne must fall T' 

The czar a chemist sent, 
Who with fierce caustics went, 
To eat the message out 



62 VISION AND PROPHECY. 

That so had put to rout 
The pleasure of the czar, 
And toiled from dawn to star 
With fiery rust and bar. 

Homeward a horseman flew, 
And this the message true : 

" No science can begin, 
Nor skill, the race to win — 
The words are burning in !" 
Some straying peasant heard 
The courier's fateful word 
Reported to the lord 
Chief courtier of the king. 
And all the people sing, 
And children join the din, 

" The words are buriiins; in /'* 



Again, the man with bar 
And rust to please the czar. 
And tear the message out. 
Of which the people shout. 



VISION AND PROPHECY. 63 

And with his mission o'er, 
Reports he as before : 
'' A span, a foot, a rod — 
Swift science doth but plod. 
The words do inward fly 
As missioned from the sky !" 

In rage the monarch flew. 
The alchemist he slew, 
And sent another still. 
With threat to chain and kill, 
Did he not burn or tear 
That message of despair. 
And with him fared a guard 
That no one should retard, 
Nor scientist should flee, 
If unsuccessful he. 
Returned, he trembling said. 
As forth the guardsmen led 
Him, strongly held and bound. 
To slay if faithless found : 
•" A foot, an ell, a rod — 
The message writ of God 



64 VISION AND PROPHECY. 

About a nation's sin 
Is further burning in /" 
The guardsmen aim to fire ! 
The monarch cries, " Retire 
With him in heavy chains 
To wildest northern plains ! 
The recreant's mocking breath 
Must not the ease of death !" 

Fruitless the despot's plan 

Of banishing the man. 

Borne by the ready airs, 

His message onward fares 

Through scenes of joy and dearth 

Around the peopled earth ! 

Hill tells it unto fen. 

The wilds to homes of men, 

The mountain to the moor, 

The robin at the door 

Of cottage and of hall — 

That broken soon the thrall 

Of Russian slaves will be, 

And joy of Liberty ! 



VISION AND PROPHECY. 65 

And chant the brooks and birds : 
*' The angel-written words 
About a nation's sin 
Are ever burning in /" 
And other birds are singing 
In every morn of winging, 
In every noon of flying 
For food for birdlings crying, 
And eve of homeward hieing 
To nest, and rest, and love, 
A message from above 
Befitting lark or dove 
To sing in all the earth : 
"Man's greatest wealth, his worth. 
His unearned plenty, dearth ; 
His best of liberty. 
Deserving to be free." 

Still other birds that fly 
And sing, they know not why. 
Thus cheer, inspire and warn 
At eve and happy morn ; 
" Whatever first success. 



66 VISION AND PROPHECY. 

What flatterers address, 

How fondly love caress, 

How praiseth selfishness 

That hopes returns to bless. 

Whatever is the stress 

Of noyance that doth press. 

War waged for wrong is wrong, 

And weak and never strong. 

And weak is war for might ; 

But ever finds true knight 

All powerful war for right. 

For God is in the fight ! 

Though right should lose the fray. 

And victory delay. 

Yet surely comes the day 

Of victory, to stay. 

And show that right hath might ; 

For God is in the fight !" 



A WARNING TO COLUMBIA. 

"pUT briefly where it sung 

The sentient glowing hung. 
Then overseas it came, 
The fearless warning flame, 
And o'er Potomac's tide 
In indignation cried, 
As, eyeing halls of state, 
Mid-air the burning sate, 
Self-poised in conscious truth 
And sense of lasting youth : 
" For shame, Columbia, shame ! 
Bedimming thy bright name 
By leaguing with the power 
That claims by heavenly dower 
Each individual soul 
Of lands in his control. 
With right to dominate, 
Unto severest fate 
Those bending not the knee 
At nod of Tyranny ! 



68 A WARNING TO COLUMBIA. 

'' Why dost thou promise, why, 
That when to thee shall fly 
Those fortunate to break 
Their bondage and to take 
Across the seas their way, 
West guided by the ray 
Of freedom, to thy land, 
They shall be held for hand 
Of czar, whose wrath they flee, 
To fly in hope to thee? 
These sent to despot back. 
To dungeon and to rack. 
For holding but the thought 
That ill the monarchs wrought 
Who joyed to curse 
With an oppression worse 
Than the tyrannic crimes 
Of old barbaric times ! 
In league, Columbia, why, 
With Russian tyranny ?" 

In silence, then, the flame. 
To hear if answer came 



A WARNING rO COLUMBIA. 69 

From out Columbian hall. 
And, saying '' Deaf to all, 
And to thy past untrue !" 
The lustre, sighing, flew 
To welcome of the blue, 
That bent, sad questioning. 
And bade the birds to sing. 
And brooks — " Columbia, why 
In league with tyranny ?" 



O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG. 

r^ PATRIOTS, pure and strong, 

And waiting now so long 
Surcease of this hard fate, 
Wait on, for God doth wait ! 
For Christ, when in the fate 
O'er which all nature wept 
And Heaven sad vigils kept, 
His slayers could forgive, 
And died that they might live. 



70 '*0 PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG.' 



He shed in death the tears 
That permeate the years, 
And ever plead with man 
The beauty of the plan 
Of giving bread for blows, 
For thorn, the thornless rose 
Of love, that sweeter grows 
Through trials oft and sore — 
That, wounded o'er and o'er, 
Doth from its fragrant store 
The balm of good disburse 
And blessings breathe for curse. 

To keep this code of heaven, 
The patriots have forgiven, 
In hope that kindness win 
Who seventy times should sin. 
But seven times that have striven 
These foes of man and Heaven, 
And by ten thousand times 
Have multiplied their crimes! 
And Heaven impatient grows, 
And, noting long the woes 



*'0 PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG." 71 

Of Poland and of all 

Within the Russian's thrall, 

Will surely send a hand, 

To write where tyrant band. 

In revel o'er their wine, 

Shall read and know the sign 

Grim glistening on the wall, 

That tyranny must fall ! 

Aye, patience may endure ; 

But wrath deferred is sure. 

And soon the man shall rise 

To hear and heed the cries 

Of victims of the czars. 

And then, O waiting stars, 

How will ye shout and sing, 

And call the birds to wing 

In swiftest flight, to tell 

Wherever patriots dwell. 

His name who conquered Tyranny 

And set the exiles free, 

And Poland's flag unfurled 

To honor in the world. 



72 "O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG. 

Aye, God will heed the cries 

Of Poland's agonies. 

For, though his name is Love, 

And His the carrier dove, 

Yet His the eagle is. 

And all the majesties 

Of all the life of earth. 

Since far creation's birth ! 

He gave the tiger power, 

And ocean monsters dower. 

To lash the seas to rage 

And mighty ships engage. 

He taught the earth to quake, 

And made the mountains shake. 

'Twas He created light 

And piled the Alpine height. 

He set the rhythmic spheres 

To cadence of the years 

Of the eternity 

He gave the right to be ! 

His Christ of Olivet 

And Galilee used, yet, 

A scourge ; His Moses saw 



"O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG. 73 

The lightnings of the law 
From Sinai blaze, to tell 
That with Jehovah dwell 
All powers, and it is well 
With those alone who fear 
Him, and in truth sincere, 
Hold all His statutes dear, 
Who live for righteousness. 
And never to oppress. 
And He, if stubborn prove 
The czars to pleas of love, 
Will call some iron man 
To execute His plan, 
To thunder forth His wrath 
And plow with war a path 
Through tyranny's domains 
And break the exiles' chains. 
And lead each patriot band 
To home and native land. 



Fail not, protesting rhyme 
Against the Russian crime. 
Fail not his worth to sing. 



74 "O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG. 

Who, once in Russia king. 

Had righted much of wrong, 

Had not the furious throng 

Smote Alexander down 

And set the Russian crown 

Against the Polish cause 

Of Liberty's good laws. 

But Polish patriots see 

A crime in anarchy. 

No vengeance on their foes 

Would they ; but thornless rose 

And white, and every flower 

Of Peace for those whose power 

Hath been so long the ban 

Of Russia and of man ! 

Unselfish in their grief. 

These patriots seek relief 

For all who feel 

The tyrant's iron heel. 

To people of the realm 

They seek to give the helm 

Of Russian power. 

As rightful dower. 



''O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG." 75 

Nor charge they the rod 
Of tyranny to God. 
And spurn they the extremes 
Of the ill-visioned dreams 
Of those anarchic fools 
Whom wild unwisdom rules, 
They of that base alloy 
Which nerves men to destroy. 



A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS. 

A 17" ILL tyrants turn, who make 
Their chief delight to break 
The patriotic heart. 
And name their crime an art ! 
Yet grant imagination scope. 
And patience chance to hope 
That czars be won to sense 
Of need of penitence, 
Or scourged until they see 
How wrong the cruelty 



76 A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS. 

That gives to Poland tears, 
And damns a thousand years I 

Should miracle be done 
The greatest under sun, 
The visioned stars have seen, 
And czars repentance mean — 
Go, czars, by conscience sent, 
Go, honored to repent. 
Go, with your burden bent 
Go any way ye must, 
Go, if through thorns and dust 
Go, if with heavy chains 
Like exiles o'er the plains ! 
Go, grateful that you may ; 
Go, seek fit place to pray. 
Go where the zephyrs say 
That sigh from heaven's way ! 
Go, foes of liberty, 
And fall on suppliant knee 
Where dust of Kracut is 
'Mid Cracow's mysteries. 
The first of Polish kings 



A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS. 77 

The muse of History sings, 

The Slavic chief of time 

Ere czars had cursed his clime. 

There, pleading not the claim 

Of royalty or fame, 

But only His good name 

Who gave the one reliet 

That owned himself a thief — 

There tell the skies your sin, 

Aware as ye begin, 

That Christ, the ever kind, 

With justice mild, consigned 

To millstone and the sea 

The unwept tyranny 

Of Pharisees of old, 

To whom ye likeness hold. 

Kneel, then, in Cracow, where 

The soul of Wanda fair 

Doth frequent still the air 

Above the hill that claims 

Sweetest of Polish names. 

And ask you there of Heaven 

If czars can be forgiven ! 



BY KOSCIUSKO'S DUST. 

'T^HEN, with this pleading done, 

If beams benignant sun, 
Or if for you there shine 
One ray of star benign ; 
Then seek another grave, 
His place whom Heaven gave 
To show to czars and earth 
A Polish patriot's worth, 
And sent to aid, in youth, 
Columbia's cause of truth. 
There, by this hero's rest, 
See, if, with prayer addressed 
The Heaven of Liberty, 
Czars can forgiven be 
Of Heaven and of the free ! 
There hear from far the cry 
Of those who hope, or try 
To hope, before they die, 
To see once more the home 
From which dear memories come. 
O ! memories that burn 



BY KOSCIUSKO S DUST. 79 

And into torments turn ! 

How must the exiles yearn 

For once to grasp the hand 

Of kindred in the land 

Of their great leader's birth, 

The dearest land of earth ! 

O, cruel tyranny ! 

That freemen may not see 

For once the boyhood farm, 

Sweet with the pet brook's charm ; 

For once the childhood cot, 

For once the play-place grot. 

For once the daisied mead. 

For once two paths to lead, 

As once, to trysting place 

Of bravery and of grace ! 

For once the grassy mound 

That love's fair roses crowned ! 

There Linka's ashes lie, 

Who had the choice to die 

Or tell the tyrant's spy 

When by His Highness bid, 

Of patriot Pavel hid ! 



8o BY Kosciusko's dust. 

And there's the outlook hill, 
And there the near-by rill, 
And there the other stream, 
Whose unforgotten gleam 
Inspired the boyhood dream 
Of busy, stirring life, 
Of joy in hardest strife. 
Of earning high success 
And coming home to bless, 
With nobly won largess, 
The village where in joy 
Erstwhile dwelt the boy ! 
Instead, condemned to pine. 
Imprisoned in a mine. 
For that high quality 
That fits men to be free. 
There, where the good man lies. 
Best of the sanctities 
Of the Sarmatian land. 
There, tyrants, stand. 
There, tyrants, kneel, 
And well the honor feel ! 
There, ye who give a slave 



BY Kosciusko's dust. 8i 

The right to choose his grave, 
The felon, who atones, 
With hempen halter, groans 
He caused, the right to say 
Where ye his bones shall lay — 
There, by Kosciusko's dust. 
Be honest, once, and just ! 
There talk, repentant czars, 
With conscience and the stars, 
The eyeing stars, that see 
What is sincerity. 
And will no fleeting mood 
Of tears for years of blood ! 
Tell stars and conscience why 
In vain do freemen cry 
To you for boon of serf. 
For one green stretch of turf. 
Where, from foreign strand 
Sent back to native land — 
Where, if not given breath 
At home, they may at death 
Be sent to final rest. 
To slumber unoppressed ! 



•82 BY Kosciusko's dust. 

Cannot endure the stars? 
Why, there's a place, ye czars. 
Where stars do never shine. 
And whence no royal line 
Or peasant cometh back 
By straight or devious track — 
But onward still must fare 
Whoever goeth there ! 
-And there's another, too, 
Where stars are never due, 
But lurid lightnings glare, 
And demons rule the air ; 
And hither none shall fare 
That ever enter there ! 
And there's another still 
Of flowery plain and hill 
Of Sion, blest abode 
Of angels and of God ! 
And of the saints who rise 
From earth's hard agonies 
To freedom of the skies ! 
But, untransformed by grace 
To fitness for the place. 



BY Kosciusko's dust. 83 

In heaven no tyrants live ; 
For heavenly blisses give 
Such influence that 'twere hell 
For tyrants there to dwell. 



WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 

/^ ye unthinking czars, 

Why contradict the stars ! 
For they have lived to see 
Too much of history 
To deign to a reply 
When even Russians lie ! 
Boast not your hosts in arms, 
That give the world alarms. 
For steel-clad giants are 
But pigmies to a star.^ 
Stars laugh at all your power 
And point to Shinar's tower, 
That was, and Babylon, 



84 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 

That boasted to the sun 
Of her Chaldean might ! 
And held the world in fright, 
And perished in a night ! 
And but her ruins tell 
Of Babylon that fell ! 

And point the stars, to king 
Of whom but furies sing, 
The Herod throned of yore, 
But cursed forever more 
In street and cloister lore. 

From scanning these 

Look back to Rameses, 

Whom and whose like gave tears 

For twice two hundred years 

To chosen sons of God. 

And these condemned to plod, 

Scourged by oppression's rod 

That grew by gore, 

These, through their bondage sore, 



WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 85 

Upon God's promise fed, 
Till, brave enough, they fled, 
Bv visoned shepherd led. 

And now the sea before 
Withholds from freedom's shore. 
And prisoning mountains stand 
To hold for Pharaoh's hand. 
But look ! the flood divides. 
Heaven holds apart the tides ! 
The fugitives pass through ; 
Menephtah's hosts pursue. 
But fierce returning waves 
Whelm in their watery graves 
Ruler, horsemen, all — 
A wreck that hints the fall 
Of the Egyptian throne. 
O'er which in warning moan 
The ages sweep, to say 
That tyrants pass away ! 

Man's title to be free 
Is writ in history, 



S6 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 

And finds, to prove it, given 
The very truth of Heaven. 
And, sweet as favoring word 
By wooing Honor heard, 
The song of brook and bird 
And Zephyr's minstrelsy 
Are music of the free. 
So everything decries 
The despot's tyrannies. 
In waking life of spring, 
When glad the robins sing ; 
In the persuasive breath 
Of June from flowery heath ; 
In airs that sweeten shade 
Of pleasant wooded glade 
And move the fairy ferns 
To dance by merry burns ; 
In storms around the peaks 
Where fierce the thunder speaks 
In chill November's gale 
That sweeps the frosted vale ; 
In Ocean's sullen roar 
On Winter's icy shore — 



WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 87 

In all her ministries, 
The voice of nature is 
Rebuke of tyrannies. 

In tender tones and mild 
As plaintive voice of child, 
In clarion peal, and strong 
As burst of lyric song ; 
Commanding, deep and slow 
As centuries that flow 
Through history 
Toward eternity — 
The olden warning word 
Repeated, now is heard 
In all the upward trend 
To Consummation's end ; 
The word in every wind, 
The word in every mind. 
But yours, audacious czars. 
Who contradict the stars — 
Let ye my people go ! 
Let ye the exiles go !" 



OTHER POEMS. 



II. 



THE EQUAL LOT. 

A 1 T'lTH equal hand, impartial Heaven 

Bestows on all, the blessings given 
To cheer the earth. 

If birds that bless the morns of spring 
Alone at regal courts would sing, 
We might complain. 

But everywhere, from hill to shore, 
The joyous warblers artless pour 
Their songs for all. 

As grateful thine anemones 
And all the perfumed potencies 
Thy rose exhales 

As odors they of kingly kind. 
Empurpled in a palace, find 
The flowers to yield 

That grow by royal gardener dressed. 
And bloom with smiles of princess blessed,. 
On sacred days. 



THE EQUAL LOT. gt 

Nor sweeter sounds than you or I, 
Hears king or Croesus, walking by 
The purling brook ; 

Nor, navied in their gilded boats. 
Than we embarked in common floats. 
More restful plash 

Of wave ; nor surer they to ride 
In safety to the haven side 
Of waters sailed. 

Nor king than we has sweeter hymn 
Of Zephyr ; nor doth Sunset limn 
Diviner west 

Forking, with hues from heavenly fount ; 
Nor nearer is the royal count 
Of stars than thine 

To His who outlined nature's plan 
And reared the astral arch, to span 
The universe ! 



AMONG THE TREES. 

T 17" HERE nature reigns distinctions fade 
That pride may bring to grove and 

glade, 
To flaunt them there. 

Rank has no sway at nature's court, 
And Fame is there of small import, 
And pelf is scorned. 

Impartially, when vernal breath 
Proclaims the winter's reign of death 
Is at its end. 

The maple buds portend the June, 
Whose leaves shall cool the torrid noon 
Of summer time. 

To thee as kindly welcome wave 
The elms as unto prince they gave 
Who fared that way. 

And wild and tender harmony 
The pensive pines address to thee 
As unto all, 



AMONG THE TREES. 93, 

And breathe balsamic airs of health, 
Uncaring for their rank and wealth 
Who seek the boon. 

The quiet beauty of the beech 

To thee as unto all will teach, 

If thou wilt learn. 

The loveliness of real worth, 
Whatever station in the earth 
The worthy have. 

To thee as grand the oaks that hold 
Discourse with crags of mountain bold, 
Anent the storms, 

As unto royalty they seem ; 
And for thine eyes as brightly gleam 
The autumn woods 

As for the monarch who desires 

To imitate their gorgeous fires 

On robes he wears, 

But finds that futile is the sleight 
Of kings to deck themselves as bright 
As nature shines ! 



94 AMONG THE TREES. 

Contrasting with the snowy lands, 
As sombre-hued the hemlock stands 
To symbolize 

Thy grief, as though the dark, cold green, 
Sighing, bemoaned with northland queen, 
Her consort dead. 

And when again the trees in bloom 
Dispel the thoughts of death and doom, 
And hope inspire. 

Thou canst the graceful tasseling 
That decks the birchen boughs of spring 
As well enjoy 

Uncrowned, untitled and unknown. 
As though instated on a throne 
Of kingly power. 



N 



THE LESSON OF THE LILIES. 

ATURE rebukes presumptuous men, 
And yet invites the constant ken 
Of reverent souls. 



And still the words the Master saith, 
Who cam.e of old from Nazareth, 
Nature repeats : 

Consider thou the lilies well, 
O man, who thinkest thou canst tell 
Their coloring, 

And canst the processes divine 
Wherein the primal hues combine 
That beauty give, 

And tell the fragrances that meet 
To make those rarest odors sweet 
That lilies shed. 

Consider thou the lilies well, 
O man, who thinkest thou canst tell 
What lilies are — 



g6 THE LESSON OF THE LILIES. 

Perfections of the alchemies 
Wherein the chemists of the skies 
Have wrought their best ! 

And lilies not alone meant He 
Who taught on hills of Galilee, 
Their loveliness. 

But all the flowers that decked the field 
For him did sweetest pleasure yield, 
And theme for thought. 

And, eloquent above thy speech, 
The flowers will still their ethics teach^ 
O man of earth. 

As when, to prove His doctrine true. 
In Palestine, the Teacher drew 
From nature's store. 

And, mortal, thou canst ever find. 
If well instructed is thy mind 
By heavenly power. 

Such high renewal of thy might. 
Such inspiration and delight. 
And rest, and peace. 



THE LESSON OF THE LILIES. 9/ 

In thinking on the works of God, 
From tiny twig and velvet sod 
To mountain peak, 

As thou, in thine ambitious schemes 
Fulfilled unto thy brightest dream'^, 
Can'st never find ! 



THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS. 

T^HE sweetest songsters carol 

Among the Berkshire hills, 
In harmony with music 

Arising from the rills 
That flow with silvery murmur. 

In melody along. 
And charm as if in heaven 

They learned the art of song, 
And were by Him empowered 



98 THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS. 

Who formed the starry spheres 

And guides their rhythmic motion 

Through all the circling years. 

Bright brooks ! they came from heaven. 

To teach the tuneful art, 
And woo men from their sorrows 

And from their cares apart ; 
To teach them high behavior, 

And gentle ways and true, 
Inspiring them with courage 

To fight life's battles through ; 
The while, through all the harshness 

That gives to earth its ban, 
They live attuned for living 

Where harmony began. 

There other brooks, in chorus 

With other birds, shall sing, 
To tell the power and goodness 

Of the Eternal King ; 
And welcome home the singers 

From dissonance of time 



THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS. 99 

To melodies of heaven 

And zephyrs of the clime 
With music far exceeding 

The cadence of the rills 
That carol with the songsters 

Among the Berkshire hills. 



AT DAY-BREAK. 

A T last along the eastern sky 
The glimmerings of morn, 
To end in radiance of joy 

A night of doubt and scorn ! 

Dread night — it was a winter long ! 

And cold with winds of fate, 
That still, through all their fiendish song. 

Were hot with ire of hate 

And live with imps whose interludes 
Chimed with the airs, to tell 



lOO AT DAY-BREAK. 

The rancor of infernal feuds — 
Fit minstrelsy of hell ! 

But now the birds with carols high 

Charm all doubt's fiends away. 

And crimsons now the eastern sky, 
To hint a coming day, 

That shall through all its hours remain 
Unvexed by doubt and scorn, 

And in the full of noon retain 

The newness of the morn ! 

A day whose evening shall proclaim 
That brighter dawning waits, 

Fulfillment of the sunset flame, 
At the celestial gates ! 



A HEAVEN. 

\ 1 rHEREVER bloom the happy isles 

In lasting verdure drest. 
Whereon perpetual morning smiles 
High welcome to the blest, 

No glided barques bear any there ; 

Nor, borne o'er summer seas, 
Do any find the orchards fair 

Of the Hesperides. 

As story made a dragon bold 

The fabled apples guard. 

So, now, who seeks for fruit of gold 
Opposing fiends retard. 

But on the good the truth bestows 
Herculean power to slay, 

By valor's well directed blows, 
The monsters in the way. 

Wherever the elysium is. 

In what good land afar. 



I02 A HEAVEN. 

And gained by what high ministries 
Of what benignant star, 

It is not reached along the way 

Where sirens charm the sea ; 

But seek, the warning angels say, 
Through Christ of Calvary, 

The kingdom of conditions high, 
Where quality hath rate. 

Where fitness, and not heraldry, 

Gives entrance through the gate. 

For what man is, not where he is. 

His heaven is, or hell ; 
His heaven the heavenly qualities 

That prompt his doing well. 

His heaven that high ennoblement 

That gives to whom 'tis given, 

The blessing of a heart content 
To win his way to heaven. 



WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR 
COUNTRY. 

A BOVE the grandeur of the sunsets 
Which delight this earthly clime, 
And the splendors of the dawnings 

Breaking o'er the hills of time, 
Is the richness of the radiance 
Of the land beyond the sun. 
Where the noble have their country 
When the work of life is done ! 

There is the mysterious problem 

Of their earthly life made plain ; 
There the bitter turned to sweetness, 

There the losses turned to gain. 
There the rapture of the new life 

Far exceeds the griefs of this. 
And earth's toiling is forgotten 

In the restfulness of bliss. 

And the music of their welcome, 
From angelic lyres of gold. 



104 WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY 

Shall full often be repeated, 
Yet it never shall grow old ; 

Music grander than earth's noblest, 
Than all eloquence of words 

And the sweetest of the carols 
Of the gladdest of the birds ! 

Welcome there, and there forever 

Free from artifice of time, 
Shall the noble of that country. 

In the real of that clime, 
Read the virisdom of the Father, 

From whose all-creating hand 
Are the beauties, and the glories. 

And the people of that land. 

There they rightly read the visions 
Of the ancient seers, that give 

Higher good than urban splendors 
Where the saints at last shall live. 

There they surely find a heaven 
Not conventional or made, 



WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY I05 

And inhabitants delighting 

In the hillside, brook and shade ! 

For magnificent with forests 

Is that country of the skies, 
Far excelling in their bird-songs 

All the earthly minstrelsies. 
And that country hath its mountains 

And is resonant with streams 
That are sweeter in their music 

Than the rivers of our dreams ! 

Blooms of finest form and lustre, 

Fragrant on the eternal hills, 
With their odors bless the zephyrs. 

That, harmonious with the rills. 
Sing, to give the angels pleasure 

Who were fit to sing the birth 
Of the Savior of the sorrowing 

And the sinful of the earth. 

And, His mission there completed, 
He shall reign with them above 



I06 WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY 

And instruct them in the wonders 

Of the country of His love, 
Where He giveth them an entrance 

And that higher work to do 
That shall keep them ever growing, 

x\nd the charm of living, new. 

And His name throughout the ages, 

As the aeons circle by, 
To the trend and the cadence 

Of their own eternity. 
Shall be theme and inspiration 

In the land beyond the sun, 
Where the noble have their country 

When the work of life is done ! 



CLARE. 

A RAVEN folds his wings 
Where Susquehanna sings 
A deep unceasing dirge ; 
And, chiming with the surge, 
And sadder than the song, 
The bird, the whole day long. 
Cries forth from pines that sigh 
Beneath November's sky ! 
Yet vain the chant, how vain 
The whole commingled strain, 
To give a full relief, 
Or even lessen grief. 
When over loved ones slain, 
Bereaved hearts complain 
That woman false should prove 
To constancy of love. 
In vain the pine trees sigh, ' 
And bird and river try 
To tell their blessings fled 
Who mourn their Roderick dead. 



I08 CLARE. 

For he such joy had given, 

To them he seemed from heaven. 

But came a fateful day 
To sweep their hopes away ! 
Protecting angels ! spare 
The earth from more like Clare, 
Who lit, to quench, the fires 
Of love's supreme desires, 
Joyed o'er the fading glow, 
Laid then the altar low. 
And gloried in the guilt 
To wreck the temple built 
Of peace, by hope, above 
The silver shrine of love. 
And these in ruin say 
How sad that fateful day. 
Betrothed from her own choice. 
To make his heart rejoice 
Who faithfully and well 
Had loved, by message fell 
Clare put his joy to rout 
And ruthless blotted out 



CLARE. 109 

The star that makes men glad 
And, failing, drives them mad. 

At middle of the night, 

When hope had borne such blight 

'Twere midnight were it noon, 

November were it June ! 

Doubt's night, when 'gainst despair, 

Worst fiend of all that are. 

The lover long had striven, 

At midnight, demon-driven — 

He knew not what he did ! 

Blame him ? O Heaven, forbid ! 

And Heaven their hearts sustain 

Who mourn their Roderick slain. 

And yet they bravely keep 

Life's course while still they weep. 

And braver than to live, 

The sorrowing ones forgive 

The cruelty of art 

That broke a lover's heart 

And drove him to the deed 

For which their hearts must bleed 



CLARE. 

Throughout the desert years, 
And they shed bitter tears 
O'er one with sweetest worth 
That ever perfumed earth, 
O'er one whom traitor gave 
To an untimely grave. 

So of this sadness voiceful surge 

Of river sang, and so the dirge 

Of pines, and all the winds that blew, 

Told what no yeoman was but knew, 

No dullest vision but could see 

Was useless here more witchery. 

Yet here, where seem the rocks in tears 

And giant oaks to thrill with fears. 

The artful Clare dissembles pain 

Of grieving love o'er lover slain, 

Till some, repenting scorn they gave, 

Of feigning Clare her pardon crave. 

And speak in tones that fall like rain 

On thirsty herbs of fevered plain ! 

The hint of wish to fare away 

They gently chide, and press to stay, 



CLARE. Ill 

And beg a frequent friendly word 
By postman fleet or carrier bird. 
Then, flushing fine from their caress 
Who pray celestial graciousness 
The grief-rent heart of Clare to bless, 
The queen of arts that do not fail 
Goes forth to quest in other vale ! 

How many there her arts reward 
The song were weighted to record. 
Yet many 'twas, and there, of all 
Entranced, but one too brave to fall. 
This Donald was, blithe, wise and strong. 
From land of heather and of song — 
So gallant, unobtrusive, good, 
' Twere naught to read the noble blood 
Descended from some hardy clan 
Whose valor back to Wallace ran. 
And blended, in the days of eld, 
With might the glorious Bruces held. 
Discerning Scot, as Scots are born, 
With inner sight to ken and warn. 
He read her arts and read to scorn. 



CLARE. 

And tossed a calm derisive *' nay," 
And said, as needless ' twere to say, 
" Fair one withhold the huntsman's horn, 
Nor urge thy steed the chase forlorn. 
Although thine arrows oft have slain, 
To speed them here again were vain. 
Till easier game thine eyes shall see 
Before thee, queen of archery ! " 

Defeated once, but hopeful still. 
The artful is victorious till. 
Returning where her course begun. 
Art wins again where erst it won. 
Inbreathing, from the airs that fleet 
And from the souls her arts defeat. 
New qualities of woman's power 
To add to her abundant dower. 
Audacious grows the conquering Clare, 
Till, daring sacred precincts where 
The ashes loved of Roderick sleep. 
And bowed bereavement comes to weep, 
She startles from affection's prayer 
The kin and comrades faithful there — 



CLARE. 113 

Yet artful so they near believe 
Her artfulness, that would deceive 
Almost the angels of the skies, 
So saintly seem her sophistries! 
Assuming role of mourner, too, 
Who sorrows more than others do. 
She comes in tears and tearful goes. 
Returns in tears and plants a rose. 
And tarries oft in practice there, 
To learn the art to feign a prayer ! 

Thus once from dawn to evening star, 
When stranger fared who came from far, 
From England's coast, in quest of fame, 
P'rom England's coast, with Albion's 

name. 
Though great his English consequence 
And all sufficient for defence 
Against most pleasures aimed to try 
To swerve from his endeavors high, 
It was not proof against the Clare 
Discovered thus by Albion there, 
A lovely grief alone at prayer ! 



114 CLARE. 

If power there be in woman's smiles, 
How thrice bewitching are the wiles 
Of woman tremulous with fears, 
Of woman grieving unto tears. 
And charming if the grief sincere. 
Her sorrow feigned more cause for fear, 
When greater than the true appear 
The acted sigh, and look, and tear. 

Tell not the story, though 'tis brief, 
Of Albion won by woman's grief. 
So fully won that those who warned 
He heeded not till charmer scorned. 
Tell not the tale, though briefly said, 
Of Albion loving, Albion dead, 
Self-slain because refused by Clare, 
The charming grief he found at prayer. 
How great the woes of woman due 
At Roderick's grave and Albion's, too ! 
At hint of day she weeps by one, 
13y other with the setting sun ! 
But yonder, poised on buoyant wings. 
An angel messenger, who sings: 



CLARE. 115 

" Fair one and false, inconstant Clare, 
'Twere ill for one from upper air 
For once a woman's mind to taint 
With words that any vices paint 
To which her cruelties have driven 
Good men whose virtue, sweet to heaven, 
Bloomed fragrant on the airs of earth 
With odors of celestial worth ! 
And who shall tell the griefs that crazed 
Till calmest minds erratic blazed. 
Then sunk forever in the night 
Of deepest hopelessness of blight ! 
Or who describe the crimson tide 
Where love, defeated, rashly died. 
Although the busy following years 
Of triumphs won through causing tears, 
May for the moment thrust aside 
Remembrance of the first who died 
To whom, in plighting troth, she lied. 
Not long doth Clare forget, I ween, 
The color of the tragic scene 
When he went out a darkened way. 
Not even Clare forgets that day — 



Il6 CLARE. 

Not even Clare, where 'er she stray. 
Not even Clare doth long forget 
The sadness of the sun that set 
When first a victim of her slight 
Rushed wild, despairing into night? 

" But that dark night shall have a morn, 

O Clare, who didst his pleading scorn, 

A morn when thou from night shall see 

His spirit in felicity, 

High mated in that country where 

No one like thee shall ever dare, 

O fair, inconstant, cruel Clare ! 

" Forgiven by his gracious kin 

Thy keenest cruelty of sin. 

Straight from his death, all unoppressed. 

Thou faredst forth on other quest, 

To win again, again to prove 

Thy sure inconstancy of love. 

And now, although in pride arrayed 

And flushing from achievements made. 

Thou comest to dissemble here 



CLARF. 117 

The power to shed a truthful tear, 
And try the feat, of feigning, Clare, 
The awe and agony of prayer, 
To aid thee sorrowing love to feign, 
That should another lover gain 
For thee to crush, to see his pain ! 
Then thou wouldst drink his being up 
And toss aside the broken cup 
That was a faithful lover's self, 
As but the pence of beggar's pelf, 
And forth to other conquest fare, 
Inconstant and insatiate Clare ! 
Responsive to thy nature's call. 
Here Albion gave to thee his all. 
Drank thou his soul to thy delight. 
And all his power, to give thee might. 
Drank thou with that high ecstasy 
That speaks a woman's liberty ; 
And then, the consummation done. 
Thou, cruel, fair, inconstant one, 
With might he gave didst giver slay, 
And say to all his pleadings nay — 
Thv victor soul to steel didst turn 



Il8 CLARE. 

And Albion from thy presence spurn ; 

And alternated back to prayer 

Still other souls to charm and snare ! 

Nor wouldst thou rest until thine arts 

Had snared and drunk a thousand hearts^ 

That each increased the art of Clare 

By thousand fold of power to snare, 

And all the kingliest of the earth, 

Mistaking artfulness for worth, 

Should rave in eloquence of praise 

Of thine enrapturing ways. 

Or cringe meek suppliants for thy smiles 

And, for them rivals, by thy wiles, 

Should die in duels for thine hand 

Till rashness reddened every land ! 

With airs to sigh a deep refrain, 

And stars in tears above the slain 

That cumbered every plain 

From northmost to Antarctic main, 

And mighty angels trembling o'er 

The prodigality of gore 

From Orient to western shore, 

And saints forgetting bliss on high 



CLARE. 119 

To shudder with the peaceful sky— 
This, this, O Clare, were unto thee 
The acme of felicity ! 

" But thou shalt never capture more. 
Thy day of conquest now is o'er ! 
'Tis mine, fair one, the word to speak 
That, spoken, must life's tenure break. 
To some that word is but a boon ; 
Yet unto most it comes too soon. 
But seem it soon, or seem it late, 
Or mean it boon, or mean it fate, 
Or seem it just, or seem it fell. 
When missioned here, that word I tell ; 
For I, fair one, am Azrael. 
And here that word as dart I send 
Thine artful cruelty to end ! " 

The listener, speechless, quivering stood, 
Then, reeling, staggered toward the flood. 
The spurning waves soon cast ashore, 
And fishers, finding, pitying bore 
To lonely glen and buried there, 



I20 CLARE. 

Where meagre marble reads of Clare ! 

There weird the pensive pine trees sigh 

Beneath the gray November sky, 

And raven comes on sombre wings 

And gruesome to the river sings, 

That, chanting sad and ceaseless strain, 

Bears burden to the distant main 

Of love that perfidy hath slain. 

And mournful whispering with the dirge, 

Distinct above the river's surge. 

And sigh of pines and note of bird, 

The spirit of a voice is heard : 

"" O maiden fair ^ do thou be true, 

Or thou shalt long thy falseness rue ! 

O woma7i false, beware, beware j 

Repent thy ways, give heed to Clare /" 

O who shall tell the damning guilt 
Of her who wrecks ideal built — 
By her desired, by her inspired — 
By lover by her wishes fired. 
Than this there is no greater crime 
In all the rounds of troubled time, 



CLARE. 121 

Beneath the wide-beholding sun — 
Who murders love, hath murder done ! 

O ye compelled to be 

Acquaint with perfidy 

Till ye might think that Clare, 

Was type of all the fair, 

Come where the roses rare, 

And clover blooming there, 

Shed forth upon the air 

The story of a love 

Whose fragrance cheers above 

The breath of sweetest June 

Of Summer's boon ! 

Where sweet a shining river 

Flows singing to the sea 

And purls with charming cadence 
Where smiling landscapes be, 

Gemmed bright with pleasant mansions, 
That in perspective seem 

The counterpart of castles 



122 CLARE. 

That fill youth's brightest dream- 
There, sweet within that valley, 

In other days, a scene 
That fills with choicest fragrance 

The years that intervene ! 

And for that scene the valley 

A finer verdure spreads 
When, cheering after winter, 

The May sun radiance sheds. 
And brighter flame and crimson 

And lovelier dun and gold 
The hardy mountain beeches 

And valley maples hold. 
When frost and autumn sunshine 

Their chemistry have done, 
In glorious completion 

Of work the spring begun. 

Dear vale of Metawampe ! 

Sweet by the sunrise shore 
Of thy majestic river, 

Delightful evermore, 



CLARE. 123 

An arbor was where Lillian, 

Who Leon promise made 
But later wrecked the plighting, 

By unwise kindred swayed, 
Returned, at last, repentant, 

To bid his hope relive, 
And there so bravely humble 

Knelt asking him forgive. 

And quick above the sadness 

That darkened weary years 
And weighted him with sorrow 

Exceeding words and tears, 
There broke serenest radiance 

That ever augured day, 
Or woke a heart to courage, 

Or lit a wanderer's way. 

With gentle hand, 
In fairy-land 
To thoughts sublime she led him ; 
With grandest views. 
And nectar dews. 



124 CLARE. 

And heavenly fruitage, fed him ; 
From field and sky 
And mountain high 

Inspiring lessons read him ; 
With tender art, 
From her true heart, 

A sincere promise said him, 
Naming a day, 
A month away, 

A happy day towed him. 

That good day came 
With sweet t6^ flame 

The Orient ever lighted. 
To signalize 
The golden ties 

Of loving hearts united ! 
Day sweet with airs 
That banished cares 

And to high thoughts incited ; 
Day spanned with blue. 
The whole day through ! 

As if all wrongs were righted 



CLARE. 125 

And sang the lark 
Till all birds dark 
Had flown from earth affrighted ! 

Sweet vale of Metawampe ! 

Therein since that dear day 
Auspicious time for trysting 

The silver nights of May. 
For, then, from favoring Heaven. 

Swift where the lovers wait, 
Thrilled with the thoughts surpassing 

All else however great, 

Fly ministrants commissioned 

To utter words that save 
From cowardice the lover 

And make the maiden brave. 
And when the pledge is spoken 

To crown love's high emprise, 
They soar from Metawampe, 

To tell the waiting skies ! 



'M 



^5 



^*>*?i^:!tft; 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

llliiliiilliililllllillillilliil 

016 117 363 



